


pull me down from my graces

by finkpishnets



Category: Once Upon a Time in Wonderland (TV)
Genre: Angst, Complicated Relationships, F/M, Hopeful Ending, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-24
Updated: 2020-12-24
Packaged: 2021-03-10 20:54:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,236
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28133523
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/finkpishnets/pseuds/finkpishnets
Summary: “I’m theirqueen,” she says under her breath, watching from the window, and Will knows she’s talking to herself, not him.“So prove it,” he says anyway.
Relationships: Knave of Hearts | Will Scarlet/Red Queen | Anastasia
Comments: 5
Kudos: 24
Collections: Yuletide 2020





	pull me down from my graces

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ScQ](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ScQ/gifts).



> happy yuletide! 
> 
> i love this show, and i love these characters, but most of all i love how messy their relationship is and i wanted to look at what happened between the end of the battle for wonderland and alice's story, and how will and ana got there. so, naturally this led to a...rather large amount of angst, oops. i really hope you like it and you have a wonderful holiday season!

**~**

“Get out!” she screams, throwing the nearest object in reach at his head. The ridiculous gold figurine scrapes his ear before shattering against the wall behind him. “Get out! Get out!”

He goes.

He goes, and he doesn’t come back for three days. When he does, she looks at him with haunted eyes and pale cheeks, and he feels bad that it had been a relief to leave. 

“I’m sorry,” she says, and he’s still unused to hearing those words from between deep painted lips.

“Me too,” he says, throat sharp with the taste of alcohol. 

It’s not even close to being enough, but at least it’s something.

**~**

Will knows True Love exists.

He also knows most of the time it’s bullshit.

It’s nice and everything, the idea that there’s one perfect person out there for you. Someone you’re _meant_ to be with. It’s a very pretty story.

The trouble is, most of the people who throw the words around are doing just that: spinning a story. Sometimes to other people, sometimes to themselves, but it’s always the glossy idea of love saving the day, all the evil and stupid defeated in the face of…what? Fate? A good snog?

So, yeah, he knows it exists. Feels it inside his newly replaced heart.

He also knows that it’s the perfect excuse not to have to deal with the rest of the crap that piles up. No need to face real world repercussions if you can pin your actions on True Love, after all.

To be honest, he’d rather say to hell with it and choose on his own.

(The problem is Fate’s a bitch, and he’d choose her anyway.)

**~**

That first few weeks after they’d ousted Jafar had been a serious high.

Alice and Cyrus’ wedding, Ana’s bright smile, bittersweet goodbyes and a future stretching out as far as the clouds.

Ana had looked at him like she used to, before Wonderland, when they’d hidden beneath ancient oaks and whispered promises against the press of each other’s palms. He’d loved her then, and he loved her now, and nothing in between mattered much at all.

They’d returned to the palace to find it mostly in one piece, a little chaotic maybe, but nothing they couldn’t sort out when they were ready. When they could stop touching each other long enough to find the time to think things through.

“Your majesty…” a guard says as Ana laughs against the curve of Will’s neck.

There’s fear in the guard’s eyes, and it takes Will a long moment to remember why.

**~**

She comes to dinner dressed in red.

The room stands to attention.

Will needs a drink.

**~**

“Tell me you love me,” she’d said, the old wool scarf wrapped close around her shoulders to fight off the chill.

“I love you,” he’d said, as easy as breathing. “I love you, I love you, I love you.”

“Tell me you love me,” she says, wrapped in scarlet silk, hair pinned back in a perfect bundle of curls. Her lips are a tight line and her eyes are hard. It’s a test, and Will’s shit at those.

“Forever,” he says instead, and her breath hitches. “Doesn’t mean I always like you much.”

Her mouth twists into a sneer. “Get in line.”

**~**

There’s a riot outside the palace gates. The people know their queen is back on her throne and they aren’t happy about it.

Will thinks they should have seen this coming.

Alice would make some grand speech, stand out amongst the crowd and talk of second chances and hope, and the worst part is it would work.

If Anastasia tries that, they’ll string her up.

“I’m their _queen_ ,” she says under her breath, watching from the window, and Will knows she’s talking to herself, not him. 

“So prove it,” he says anyway.

**~**

Her hair’s splayed across the pillow, a golden crown far more appealing than the one on the mantle.

It’s early — too early — but it’s the only time they get to be themselves, here in her room. (Will has his own, somewhere. Apparently royalty are like that.)

The curve of her bare shoulder is one of the most beautiful things he’s ever seen, and he runs the pads of his fingers over it until she shivers.

“Marry me,” she says, and Will freezes, fingertips barely pressed to her skin.

“What?” he says. Ana lifts his hand to her mouth, presses a kiss to his palm.

“Marry me,” she repeats, and Will swallows.

He wants to say yes, wants to laugh and kiss her and see their future play out like a movie in the pre-dawn light.

He’s too cynical for his own good, though.

“Why?” he says instead, and her eyelashes flutter on a frustrated sigh.

“I need a king,” she says eventually, and Will frowns. “I need a king of the people.”

“And you think that’s me?” he says in disbelief. “I’m a wanted criminal. I’m a _thief_. I’m not even _from_ here! What the hell do you think I know about ‘the people’?”

“Well,” she says coldly, “you drink with them often enough, I assumed you’d have figured them out by now.”

Will leaves without his clothes.

He figures the palace staff have seen worse.

**~**

There’s one night he returns late, sneaking back into the palace through the empty cells and trying to be quiet even as his feet stumble a little.

He freezes at a noise from ‘round the next corner, waiting a long moment before he continues. He has every right to be here. He’s not doing anything wrong.

There’s a light on in the library, and he peeks through the door until he makes her out, bent over a giant stack of leather bound books, her hair tied back in a messy bun, strands falling over her eyes as she makes notes on a pad at her side.

He’s not drunk, barely the wrong side of tipsy, so it’s not hard to make out that they’re ledgers.

Will could go in, find out what she’s up to. Offer a helping hand or pull her to bed.

It’s late, though, and he doesn’t want her to look at him like _that_.

Like he’s letting her down.

He tries to remember where his room is instead.

**~**

“Yes,” he says the next time he sees her. She hasn’t pinned her hair up, and the cut of her dress is a little softer, a little more approachable.

She looks up from her writing desk, putting the quill down gently.

“Yes?” she asks, and the hopeful tilt of her voice lets him know it’s the right choice.

“Yeah,” he says, shoulders relaxing. “‘Course.”

Her smile is blinding, and he stands in the warmth of it for a long moment before he strides forward and kisses her. Her eyes are still closed when he pulls back, and the flush on her cheeks almost kills him.

“I love you,” she says on a breath, and it’s the other side of the coin. She needs a king, and she needs him, and neither of those have to be a bad thing. 

Besides, Will’s wanted to marry Anastasia since the moment he met her; it’d just be churlish to deny it now.

**~**

The wedding is a big affair, but not an expensive one.

Will’s expecting to be the one to call a stop to the extravagance, but it’s Ana who brings it up first, much to his surprise.

“We can get married in the gardens,” she says, “and…we could send parcels out to the villages? Food and drink. Clothes, maybe?”

“Medicine,” Will says, blinking at her. “Always useful.”

She smiles. “Medicine, okay.”

They deliver invites across the land and out of it. Alice and Cyrus arrive at Rabbit’s side, and Will holds Alice as tight as he dare for as long as he dare, and she doesn’t ask him questions until later when they’re alone and he’s able to fumble his way through as much of the truth as he has words for.

“Are you happy, Will?” Alice asks, and he laughs because he can’t explain to her that happiness isn’t the be all and end all she thinks. The world has always been a series of straight lines for her, of absolutes and certainties. 

This is Wonderland, though, and everything here’s topsy turvy. 

“Enough,” he says, because it’s what she wants to hear and because it’s mostly true. Alice isn’t naive, she’s just _sure_ , and he’s always envied her that a bit.

They have dinner in front of the fire, the four of them, and there’s a moment where Ana laughs, throwing her head back, and Will thinks he understands Alice a little clearer. 

“What?” Ana says when she catches him staring.

“Nothing,” he says and slides his fingers between hers, feeling _sure_ when she squeezes back.

**~**

They wear white to match the roses that have sprung up in the summer heat.

The guests stand around the lawns, more than Will could ever have imagined, not just nobles and VIPs, but the curious eyes of villagers who clutch food parcels to their chests and hold their shoulders back suspiciously. 

Ana is….

She’s _Ana_.

She’s perfect.

Her dress isn’t something she would have worn a year ago, softens her edges almost completely, and the loss of her scarlet lipstick makes her look like the young woman she is and hasn’t been for too long. She’s plaited her hair in a crown, and it takes Will back to wheat fields and horse rides. He thinks that was the point.

The attendants spent a ridiculous amount of time making sure Will looked effortless when they could have just let him roll out of bed and dress himself to get the same effect.

Still.

He has to admit he looks…better. Respectable, even, with just enough carefree rogue to make him — apparently — someone the people will be drawn to.

He’s not sure _how_ , but he’ll leave that up to the professionals.

“Hi,” she says, when they stand together on the podium. Someone’s reciting the marriage rites, but Will and Ana only have eyes for each other.

“Hi,” he says, and raises their joint hands to press a kiss against the spot where their fingers meet. 

“I love you,” she says, just for his ears, and he smiles.

“I love you.”

It’s enough.

**~**

“Wonderland has suffered greatly for too long,” Ana announces, after their vows have been amplified to everyone and the polite clapping has subsided. Will hadn’t expected more than a thank you speech, so he stands there a little awkwardly as she continues. “I…I’ve been too much of the problem. And I’m sorry for that. I know it’s not enough, I know it doesn’t make up for the past, but I promise you, from this day forward, I will put the people of Wonderland first above all else.”

There’s a murmur in the crowd, and Will’s shoulders tighten a little. Ana puts a subtle hand out, resting it against his side, asking him not to interfere.

“But that’s just words,” Ana continues. “I plan to show it. Starting now taxes are to be reduced to a quarter the amount, businesses owned by the crown will be handed back to their proprietors, and — with my husband’s help — I will be abolishing the laws that have long since allowed the royal household to treat the people of this great land so badly.”

There’s a moment of complete silence, the world standing still, and Anastasia has never looked more like a Queen.

When the dam breaks it’s to applause and cheering loud enough to split eardrums.

**~**

The first time he hears the words “The White Queen…” he realises what she’s done.

Honestly, the thief in him is in awe.

Stealing back a crown is one thing; stealing back the people is another.

**~**

“I’m serious about this,” Ana says, wrapping a shawl around her nightgown and joining him on the floor at the end of their bed. 

Will’s looking over the bundle of paperwork she handed him, work she’s clearly been putting together for weeks, _months_ even, marked out in black and white. Laws and taxes and promises. The foundations of a brand new land.

“I want to be the queen they deserve,” she says. “I want to be the wife you deserve.”

“I’ve _never_ deserved you,” Will says, because she seems to have forgotten. Because he’s never been good enough for her but that never mattered when she wanted him anyway. “And besides, love isn’t something you _deserve_ , it’s a gift, freely given.”

“You’ve been writing to Alice again,” Ana says, amusement tugging at her smile, and Will ducks his head and can’t deny it. “Then I want to make the most of my gift.”

“You and me,” Will says, because he should have said it a long time ago, because it’s the words at the bottom of all those late night drinks, “we’re messy and loud and angrier then we probably should be. We’re never going to be easy.”

Ana’s silent for a moment, and then she tilts his chin towards her, pressing their foreheads together until he can feel her breath against his lips. “I’d choose you over easy any day, Will Scarlet.”

“You’re going to be the best queen this world’s ever known,” he says, and thinks maybe they’ve finally learnt how to say ‘I love you’ and it have it mean _more_.


End file.
